


boys don't cry

by Anonymous



Series: mythical-soul's fics [7]
Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-14
Packaged: 2018-05-20 06:42:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5995338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhett’s soft <i>we should take a break</i> hit him straight in the face.</p>
<p>Yet, when the response came out of his mouth, Link didn’t regret it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	boys don't cry

**Author's Note:**

> based on @rhinkalink‘s [post](http://rhinkalink.tumblr.com/post/138198046921/i-have-this-really-sad-hc-that-sometime-later-in) (spoiler) because it broke my heart and i just had to.

Rhett’s soft _we should take a break_ hit him straight in the face.

Yet, when the response came out of his mouth, Link didn’t regret it.

Rhett’s expression was serious but it suddenly became a mix of fury and surprise Link couldn’t really describe and then their discussion became more heated, shouting each other things that they meant (and they hurt, they hurt so badly because it was pure and honest truth, Link was surprise he wasn’t bleeding already) and they just kept going until they had a moment of silence, observing each other.

“We should stop working together,” Link said, his glasses on the table, his arm crossed over his chest, his finger pointing at Rhett, as if he wanted to jab him on the chest. “We throw everything we had worked on all these years through the windows, would you like that?!” He wasn’t sure if he was being loud because he wanted everyone to listen or if it was just the ringing on his ears.

“Okay! Let’s do that! It seems like this is the end, _finally,_ ” and Rhett closed his laptop, threw it under his arm before taking his bag with him, muttering about how he was never going to talk to him again, how everything they had worked on had been worthless and before Link knew, Rhett was out of the door, closing it loudly behind him. Link was in silence for a moment and he heard Rhett’s voice telling their –his – _the_ crew that everyone would be leaving early that day.

He sat down and tried to breathe deeply, muttering to himself that he wasn’t going to cry, he wasn’t going to fucking cry because Rhett didn’t deserve those tears.

When Stevie appeared in front of him, he had been arranging everything neatly on their –his – _the_ office (fuck, get it together Neal), putting things in boxes that he didn’t remember getting, tables clean from things, it almost seemed as if someone was moving to another place.

“What happened?” She asked with a hint of bitterness on her voice. Link sat down, his arms over the table, his fingers tangled with each other and trying his best to not feel dizzy anymore. “Boss, what happened?”

“I’m not your boss anymore, Stevie.” His answer made her sit down in front of him, in Rhett’s chair, eyes fixed on him. “We’re not doing this anymore, we can’t do it.”

Link was expecting her to talk him out of it, to tell him that they were being complete idiots and that they should grow the fuck up and not discuss things as if they were children; he was expecting Stevie to talk him out of it yet she didn’t say anything about it. She nodded her head, mirroring Link’s expression and posture, her hands over the desk, her fingers tangled with each other. “Okay,” she cleared her throat. “I’ll help you with everything you need until, well, you don’t need me anymore.”

Link wanted to smile and thank her but her last words were sour. “I’ll recommend you to some friends,” he commented, almost off handed. “You did an amazing work all these years and we –I appreciated it.”

Stevie shoot him a small smile and nodded. “Thanks, Link.”

When she left, Link rested his head on his hands, making a mental list about everyone he needed to call. He was wondering if he still had the number of the company that put the Mythical Entertainment sign in entrance. While going through his contact list, he stopped a moment on Rhett’s name.

He remembered that he had never confessed his feelings at him.

Yet, Link didn’t cry.

He wasn’t sure why he didn’t move out of California after all these years.

Well, yes, Link had moved out from the old apartment (because every corner had a memory concerning Rhett even when he didn’t even lived there) to this small studio in a building tall enough for him to watch the sunset every time he wanted.

His phone was silent, still on the table where he left it yesterday morning. He wasn’t sure if it already was dead or if the annoying 10% notification was still popping up but he didn’t care –no one texted him but his boss, a loving old woman called Emalia that employed him as a freelance writer. It wasn’t a bad job but, well, it wasn’t really _his_ , it wasn’t what he had before.

Turning to see his phone, he noticed the mail lying on the table: bank letters along with other companies, some junk mail and lawyer bills. The later burned him just by glancing at them –it made him sick, thinking that he had only knew about Rhett thanks to their –his – _the_ lawyer helping them with everything.

(It was sad to think that he only knew about his old friend because of the lawyer.)

After a smoking another cigarette, he got up from the chair in the small balcony and walked to the table, taking his phone with him and marched to the bedroom. After noticing that they phone indeed had died, he connected to the charger and lied on the bed.

He didn’t remember falling asleep but he remember waking up to message sounds.

Groaning, he rolled over and debated about checking his phone. It was the weekend and he had already sent his job to Emalia that Friday night so he wasn’t sure who would be even bother to bother him.

It was the call that took him out of his thinking.

He sat down on the bed as quickly as he could, making himself dizzy and arranging the glasses on his face, since they were skewed. Taking his phone out of the charger, he read the number and Link was sure he felt his heart leapt in his chest, making him do a double take.

It was a North Carolina code.

Link doubted for a moment but answered, closing his eyes. “Hello?”

“Lincoln?” Link blinked and was in silence for a moment. “Charles Lincoln, are you there?”

“Mrs. McLaughlin,” he replied and he knew the southern woman noticed the surprise on his voice yet he didn’t notice the sadness on hers. “Hi, yes, how are you? It’s been, well, a long while.”

“It has been, truly,” she mumbled under her breath, as if she was trying to speak quietly.

Link noticed she didn’t answer his question but he didn’t push it. “What I did to honor this call, ma'am?”

“Told you to stop calling like that many years ago, boy,” she replied but now it was her turn to stay quiet. “I was actually calling to tell you about Rhett” and then, her voice cracked when she said her son’s name. Link wanted to tell her to go on but he heard her sniff. “He –god, uhm… he got into an accident.”

Link’s body froze but he felt the goosebumps surfacing on his skin, how his senses suddenly were overwhelmed and he couldn’t thinking about anything else but Rhett’s mom on the other side of the line.

“He’s in the hospital” and now he noticed how she was doing her best not to cry, how she was holding everything together to not breakdown while talking to the boy that had been part of his family for many years. “He’s in critic condition.”

Link wasn’t sure what he had told her, he didn’t really remember, but he was now throwing some clothes on a bag, knowing that he had booked a last minute flight from Los Angeles to home, to see him, to be with them.

He felt as if he was jumping through time and space, because he was now on a Uber car going to the airport, he was now sitting in front of the gates waiting to board, he was now in the plane about to take off, he was now picking up his bag from the carrousel, he was now sitting in a rental car going to Rhett’s parents’ house.

He didn’t cry when he saw his friend’s family once again after many years.

He didn’t cry when they told him that Rhett had died while he was flying to North Carolina.

He didn’t cry when he realized that the last words that he had said to Rhett where _I hate you_ , at their last meeting with their lawyer. Rhett hadn’t say anything but watched him with wide eyes until the lawyer made them sign some papers and he left before Link had the chance to say anything else.

He didn’t cry when he helped the McLaughlins to arrange the funeral.

He did almost cry when he called Stevie.

Both of them had discussed it many times –she was just like the daughter they never had. She was smart and pretty and witty and passionate about everything she did, putting heart and soul to it, and it still amazed Link after many years how much work she had put into producing most of their content.

Stevie was surprised by the call but she knew something was off when he mentioned he was back at home.

“What happened? Is everything okay?” Link wanted to giggle because it didn’t matter how much chitty-chatty he had tried to make, she kept asking and Link wasn’t going to lie.

“No,” he was being honest. “It’s Rhett.”

There was a pause. “Yes?”

“He passed away last Sunday,” he took a deep breath, pressing the palm of his right hand on his eye, as if that was going to stop the shaking and the tears from leaking. “It was a car accident.” Link heard many gasps on the other line, as she was opening and closing her mouth trying to figure out what to say. _Oh god_ was everything he could understand from her. “You’re invited to the funeral,” he cleared his throat at the last word.

“Yeah, of course” was the soft gasp she let out and Link smiled to himself, feeling bad for her. There was a quick exchange of addresses and dates and ticket flights and landing hours before the goodbyes.

He didn’t cry when he picked her up from the airport.

He didn’t cry in the funeral, even when everyone around him was.

“I didn’t know you smoked,” Stevie pointed out when they were walking back to the car –she was wearing a black suit with a black jacket. He didn’t really gave her a reply about why but only asked her if she wanted to give it a drag. She shrugged and let out a cloud of smoke that disappeared into the trees and their leaves. “That kills people.”

He didn’t cry after they stayed talking until late hours with Rhett’s family.

He didn’t cry when he left Stevie back in her hotel.

He didn’t cry when stood over Rhett’s grave two days later, when Stevie was gone, when almost everyone was starting to go back to their normal lives, when his flight was tomorrow morning. Link sighed, looking at the dirt surrounded by grass, the flowers lying prettily over it.

Closing the door of his car, he sat down for a moment with the hands on the wheel.

Link cried when the realization of _he’s dead_ hit him.

Even after all these years, there had been something in the back of his mind that told him that there was a possibility that they could apologize, that they could sit down one day and talk freely about everything without a lawyer in between, that they could make the things they loved together again, that they could be friends again-

Now, he realized that Rhett dying thinking that he hated him, that their relationship had been a failure, that their business wasn’t anything but wrongness and they shouldn’t have started in the first place.

Link cried loud and heavy and he couldn’t breathe and he couldn’t feel his hands because they were holding the steering wheel way too tight and he wanted Rhett back, he wanted him back, he had been stupid all these years, he wanted to apologize, he wanted him, he wanted to tell him that he loved him and it wouldn’t matter to him if he didn’t love him back, he wanted Rhett back, maybe Rhett did loved him once (and there had been the possibility of falling in love together, of growing old, of doing more and bigger and amazing things together), he wanted Rhett back, he wanted Rhett back, he wanted Rhett-

When Link woke up, he was gasping for air and after sitting, he couldn’t really focus on anything because there were big tears running down his cheeks, hanging on his eyelashes, still coming from his eyes without him wanting them to.

“Link,” there was a familiar voice calling him and Link couldn’t help himself but whimper at it because Rhett was dead, Rhett was gone and he was disoriented and- “Link, hey, are you okay?”

Then he realized he had been taking a nap in the small bunk they had in their office and he now wanted to cry from happiness when he saw Rhett observing him with an actual worried expression on his face, as if he did actually care, as if they never had a discussion, as if everything was alright.

Link moved quickly and got down jumping from up there. He ran to Rhett, hugging him hard, his ear pressing against Rhett’s chest as if he was trying to prove that he was alive, that there were lungs that worked by themselves without the help of a machine and a heart that was pumping blood through his system.

“Link,” Rhett kept calling him, trying to figure out why he was distressed, why he had been crying, why he wasn’t letting him go. Between the shaking and the tears, Link didn’t dare to say anything and just let Rhett move him to one of the chairs in the office, kneeling in front of him. “Are you alright?”

He took a deep breath and nodded, feeling Rhett’s hands resting on his knees.

It had been a dream.

Well, until it happened. It was many days later but it happened.

Rhett’s soft _we should take a break_ hit him straight in the face.

Yet, when the response didn’t come out of his mouth because Link didn’t want to regret them later.

Both had been sitting in their shared desk, looking at each other and Link didn’t move. He didn’t want to answer because he was afraid that everything will happen again, that everything he dreamed would become truth. After a moment of silence, a question emerged on his mind, something that Link hadn’t taken into account –he remembered the _this is the end, finally_ that Rhett let out before walking out of the office and Link couldn’t do anything else than ask Rhett himself.

“Let’s be honest.” Link announced, as if it wasn’t previously established, and Rhett nodded intriguingly. “Do you hate working me? Do you enjoy what we do? Why do you want to take a break?”

Link observed Rhett roll his chair towards him in silence before stopping himself in front of him. “No and yes, in that order,” he shrugged, looking at his hands on his lap.

“Why do you want to take a break?” Link asked again, almost afraid that Rhett would get upset, that the response would roll out of his tongue without thinking it twice and it would taint everything with sourness and bitterness and wrongness-

Rhett’s lips pressed against Link’s and he suddenly felt weak. His lips were so soft. One of Rhett’s hand moved to his knee, making Link jump and the other man didn’t think twice before pulling away, apologizing. Link didn’t think twice before pulling Rhett’s shirt with his hand, mumbling that he loved him, that he wanted this, that he needed him-

“I want to figure things out,” Rhett whispered afterwards, when both of them were in the couch, Link’s ear pressed against Rhett’s chest, just as he had grown used to it. Everyone already left and now it was just the two of them. “If I knew you felt the same, it would have made things way easier. I would have made a move years ago.”

Link wanted to reply that he had been feeling that way almost all his life, that had to have a nightmare to realize how people would be there one day and not be the other, that he wanted to fall in love together, grow old, do more and bigger amazing things together. Link wanted to reply all of that but he didn’t say anything.

He chuckled and nodded, his fingers playing with the hem of Rhett’s shirt.

They had been in a comfortable silence when Link told Rhett that, even in the worst times, he would be there. He would frustrated him many times because no one is perfect but, he would never hate him.

“Why are you bringing this up?” Rhett asked, his fingers running through Link’s short hair.

“I just wanted you to know” was the simple answer and Rhett just smiled, a kiss to his temple.

The next time Rhett’s soft let out the words _we should take a break_ , it didn’t hurt.

Now the word involved them both of them, away from everyone else.

And Link couldn’t feel better.

**Author's Note:**

> you can talk to me in tumblr, i'm mythical-soul ♥


End file.
